An imaginary, utterly absorbing record of the investigations of the Committee on Education, Welfare, and Public Morality of an unnamed state senate into the activities of Mr. Wissey Jones, who has come to the town of Pequot on what he says is urgent defense business. The hearings develop the suspense of a bizarre trial. It soon becomes clear that Mr. Jones buys for his corporation children of a certain sort, and that he is eager to acquire a ten-year-old named Barry Rudd, who manifests the breathtaking, prickly, sometimes obnoxious, but also deeply moving precocity of a potential genius. The dramatic conflicts exposed during the hearing revolve around the questions of exactly why Mr. Jones’s company buys children, and whether he will succeed in buying Barry. The Child Buyeris a biting commentary on some aspects of American education, on the uses of high intelligence, and on the means of defending democracy. Mr. Hersey makes fine use of the classical weapons of satire—humor and high spirits, sweet dream and nightmare, grotesqueness in the heart of normalcy—to attack not any single theory of education, but the notions that education can be an exact science; that superior minds can be set free by a national crash program; that children can be regarded as weapons; and that talent can be processed and stored for profit and defense. Although these extraordinary hearings end in a kind of horror, involving the slide into corruption or rascality or apathy of almost everyone connected with them, nevertheless the book leaves in the reader’s mind a powerful affirmation—a case for individuality, freedom of thought, integrity, faith in the young, and, above all, a better understanding of human needs in a darkling world.

USA TODAY BESTSELLER! Bestselling and award-winning author and investigative reporter Hank Phillippi Ryan delivers another twisty, thrilling, cat and mouse novel of suspense that will have you guessing, and second-guessing, and then gasping with surprise. We all have our reasons for being who we are—but what if being someone else could get you what you want? After a devastating betrayal, a young woman sets off on an obsessive path to justice, no matter what dark family secrets are revealed. What she doesn’t know is that she isn’t the only one plotting her revenge. An affluent daughter of privilege. A glamorous manipulative wannabe. A determined reporter, in too deep. A grieving widow who must choose her new reality. Who will be the first to lie? And when the stakes are life and death, do a few lies really matter? At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

This book explores the theoretical foundations of co-utility as well as its application to a number of areas, including distributed reputation management, anonymous keyword search, collaborative data anonymization, digital oblivion, peer-to-peer (P2P) content distribution, ridesharing for sustainable mobility, environmental economy, business model design and the collaborative economy. It evolved from presentations at the 1st Co-Utility Workshop, "held in Tarragona, Spain, on March 10–11, 2016." How can we guarantee that a global society without a common legal framework operates smoothly? If generosity, honesty and helpfulness do not arise spontaneously, one approach would be to design transactions so that helping others remains the best rational option. This is precisely the goal of co-utility, which can be defined in game-theoretic terms as any interaction between peers in which the best option for a player to maximize her or his utility is to make sure the other players also enjoy a fair share of utility (for example, functionality, security or privacy). Therefore, a protocol or mechanism designed using the co-utility principle ensures that helping others is the best rational option, even if players are selfish.

A story of celebration with the characters of Hazel Village.

Five cherries given to each of two children with very different personalities leads to a game in which the fruits become medicine, ammunition, pie filling, and more.